Article contents
The Future of the Great Powers in Africa: Towards a Political Economy of Intervention
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
Extract
Great-Power rivalry in Africa is among the legacies left by European statesmen who, a century ago in Berlin, carved up the continent and whole nations within it into tidy colonial compartments, several with frontiers still in dispute. Russians and Americans attended that inglorious conference but stayed out of the scramble for territories that followed. It is one of history's ironies that Moscow and Washington emerged, with proxies to help them, as leading contestants in the contemporary struggle for position, presence and power in Africa.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983
References
page 555 note 1 Gavshon, Arthur, Crisis in Africa: battleground of East and West (Harmondsworth, 1981), p. 15.Google Scholar
page 555 note 2 Radu, Michael, ‘Ideology, Parties and Foreign Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Orbis (Philadelphia), 25, 4, Winter 1982, pp. 991–2.Google Scholar
page 556 note 1 M'buyinga, Elenga, Pan Africanism or Neo-Colonialism?: the bankruptcy of the O. A. U. (London, 1982), pp. 124–6.Google Scholar
page 556 note 2 Legum, Colin, ‘Communal Conflict and International Intervention in Africa’, in Legum, et al. , Africa in the 1980s: a continent in crisis (New York, 1979), pp. 23–4.Google Scholar
page 557 note 1 Ibid. pp. 65–6.
page 558 note 1 Zartman, I. William, ‘Coming Political Problems in Black Africa’, in Whitaker, Jennifer Seymour (ed.), Africa and the United States: vital interests (New York, 1978), p. 89.Google Scholar
page 559 note 1 M'buyinga, , op. cit. p. 4.Google Scholar
page 560 note 1 Wallerstein, Immanuel, ‘The Three Stages of African Involvement in the World Economy’, in Gutkind, Peter C. W. and Wallerstein, (eds.), The Political Economy of Contemporary Africa (Beverly Hills and London, 1976), p. 48.Google Scholar
page 561 note 1 M'buyinga, , op. cit. pp. 79–80.Google Scholar
page 561 note 2 See Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Regional Cooperation and Conflict in Africa’, in International Journal (Toronto), 30, 4, Autumn 1975, pp. 671–88,Google Scholar and ‘Towards a Political Economy of Regional Integration and Inequality in Africa’, in Nigerian Journal of International Studies (Ibadan), 2, 2, 10 1978, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
page 561 note 3 Zartman, , loc. cit. p. 95.Google Scholar
page 561 note 4 See Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Beyond the Conventional: towards a political economy of the periphery’, Radcliffe Presidential Conference on Challenging Conventional Wisdom, Cambridge, Mass., April 1983.Google Scholar
page 562 note 1 Zartman, I. William, ‘The Future of Europe and Africa: decolonisation or dependency?’, in M, Timothy M. (ed.), Alternative Futures for Africa (Boulder, Colorado, 1982), p. 261.Google Scholar
page 562 note 2 Ibid. p. 275.
page 562 note 3 Ibid. p. 277. Cf. Shaw, Timothy M., ‘EEC-ACP Interactions and Images as Redefinitions of EurAfrica: examplary, exclusive and/or exploitative?’, in Journal of Common Market Studies (Oxford), 18, 2, 12 1979, pp. 135–58.Google Scholar
page 563 note 1 Langdon, Steven and Mytelka, Lynn K., ‘Africa in the Changing World Economy’, in Legum et al., op. cit. p. 211.Google Scholar
page 563 note 2 Zartman, I. William, ‘Issues of African Diplomacy in the 1980s’, in Orbis, 25, 4, Winter 1982, p. 1028.Google Scholar
page 563 note 3 Gavshon, , op. cit. p. 43.Google ScholarCf. Chaliand, Gérard, The Struggle for Africa: conflict of the great powers (London, 1982).Google Scholar
page 564 note 1 On decolonisation as a reflection of American hegemony, rather than African nationalism, see Sekgoma, Gilbert A., ‘Decolonisation: towards a global perspective, 1940–1978’, in M, Timothy M. and 'Sola, Ojo (eds.), Africa and the International Political System (Washington, D.C., 1982), pp. 41–67.Google Scholar
page 564 note 2 See Shaw, Timothy M., ‘International Organisations and the Politics of Southern Africa: towards regional integration or liberation?’, in Journal of Southern African Studies (London), 3, 1, 1976, pp. 1–19,Google Scholar and, with Mugomba, Agrippah T., ‘The Political Economy of Regional Detente: Zambia and Southern Africa’, in Journal of African Studies (Washington, D.C.), 4, 4, Winter 1977–1978, pp. 392–413.Google Scholar
page 565 note 1 For a useful typology of such alternative but not always exclusive positions, see Helen, Kitchen (ed.), ‘Options for US Policy Toward Africa’, in AEI Foreign Policy and Defense Review (Washington, D.C.), I, 1, 1979, passim.Google Scholar See also her ‘Six Misconceptions of Africa’, in Washington Quarterly, 5, 4, Autumn 1982, pp. 167–74.Google Scholar
page 566 note 1 See Ottaway, David, ‘Africa: US policy eclipse’, in Foreign Affairs (New York), 58, 3, 1979, pp. 637–58.Google ScholarCf. Gann, L. H. and Duignan, Peter, Africa South of the Sahara: the challenge to western security (Stanford, 1981).Google Scholar
page 566 note 2 Thompson, W. Scott, ‘US Policy Toward Africa: at America's service?’, in Orbis, 25, 4, Winter 1982, p. 1015.Google Scholar
page 566 note 3 Ibid. pp. 1022–2, my emphasis.
page 566 note 4 Zartman, , ‘Coming Political Problems in Black Africa’, pp. 89–90.Google Scholar
page 567 note 1 Whitaker, Jennifer Seymour, ‘United States Policy Toward Africa’, in Whitaker (ed.), op. cit. p. 242.Google ScholarCf. Ohaegbulam, Festus U., ‘Africa and Superpower Rivalry: prospects for the future and possible remedies’, in Journal of African Studies, 8, 4, Winter 1981–1982, pp. 163–75.Google Scholar
page 568 note 1 On pre-revolutionary connections between Tsarist Russia and Africa, especially with the Ethiopian Empire, see Wilson, Edward T., Russia and Black Africa Before World War II (New York, 1974).Google ScholarCf. Deepak, Nayyar (ed.), Economic Relations Between Socialist Countries and the Third World (London, 1982).Google Scholar
page 568 note 2 See, for instance, Mai, Palmberg (ed.), Problems of Socialist Orientation in Africa (Stockholm, 1978).Google Scholar Cf. the more ‘official’ line in Starushenko, Gleb, Africa Makes a Choice: the development of socialist-oriented states (Moscow, 1975).Google Scholar
page 569 note 1 Legvold, Robert, ‘The Soviet Union's Strategic Stake in Africa’, in Whitaker (ed.), op. cit. p. 163.Google Scholar
page 569 note 2 Ibid. p. 165. Cf. the ‘cold war’ orientation of Peter Janke, ‘Marxist Statecraft in Africa: what future?’, in Conflict Studies (London), 95, 05 1978,Google Scholar and David Rees, ‘Soviet Strategic Penetration of Africa’, in Ibid. 77, November 1976.
page 570 note 1 Gavshon, , op. cit. p. 21.Google ScholarCf. Hahn, Walter, Soviet Shadow over Africa (Miami, 1976).Google Scholar
page 571 note 1 Copson, Raymond W., ‘African Flashpoints: prospects for armed international conflict’, in Orbis, 25, 4, Winter 1982, pp. 903–4.Google Scholar
page 571 note 2 Legum, , ‘Communal Conflict and International Intervention in Africa’, p. 65.Google Scholar
page 571 note 3 Ibid. p. 48.
page 572 note 1 Ibid. p. 49.
page 572 note 2 See Shaw, Timothy M., ‘The Actors in African International Politics’, in Shaw, and A, Kenneth A. (eds.), The Politics of Africa: dependence and development (London, 1979), pp. 357–96.Google Scholar
page 572 note 3 Zartman, , ‘Issues of African Diplomacy in the 1980s’, p. 1030.Google Scholar
page 573 note 1 Legum, , ‘Communal Conflict and International Intervention in Africa’, p. 55.Google Scholar
page 573 note 2 Copson, , loc. cit. p. 905.Google Scholar
page 574 note 1 Bienen, Henry S., ‘Military Rule and Military Order in Africa’, in Orbis, 25, 4, Winter 1982, pp. 964–5.Google Scholar
page 574 note 2 Ibid. p. 965. Cf. E, Bruce E. (ed.), Arms for Africa: military assistance and foreign policy in the developing world (Lexington, 1982).Google Scholar
page 576 note 1 See O. A. U., Lagos Plan of Action for the Economic Development of Africa, 1980–2000 (Geneva, D. C., 1981), and World Bank, Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: an agenda for action (Washington, D.C., 1981).Google Scholar
page 576 note 2 For critiques and comparisons, see Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Debates about Africa's Future: the Brandt, World Bank and Lagos Plan blueprints’, in Third World Quarterly (London), 5, 2, 04 1983, pp. 330–44;Google ScholarAllison, Caroline and Green, Reginald H., ‘Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: what agendas for action?’, in IDS Bulletin (Brighton), 01 1983;Google Scholar and ‘Special Double Issue on the Berg Report and the Lagos Plan of Action’, in Africa Development (London), 7, 1–2, 1982, pp. 1–206.Google Scholar
page 577 note 1 Zartman, , ‘Coming Political Problems in Black Africa’, p. 113. For more on the comparison between ‘eventful’ and ‘uneventful’ scenarios in Southern Africa, see his ‘Social and Political Trends in Africa in the 1980s’, pp. 109–19.Google Scholar
page 577 note 2 See Bowman, Larry W., ‘The Strategic Importance of South Africa to the United States’, in African Affairs (London), 81, 323, 04 1982, pp. 159–91.Google ScholarCf. Gann, L. H. and Duignan, Peter, South Africa: war, revolution or peace? (Stanford, 1978).Google Scholar
page 578 note 1 Kemp, Geoffrey, ‘US Strategic Interests and Military Options in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in Whitaker (ed.), op. cit. p. 150.Google Scholar
page 578 note 2 Radu, , loc. cit. p. 987.Google Scholar
page 579 note 2 Ibid. p. 991. For a more balanced, albeit non-radical, interpretation, see Young, Crawford, Ideology and Development in Africa (New Haven, 1982).Google Scholar
page 579 note 1 Zartman, , ‘Issues of African Diplomacy in the 1980s’, p. 1042.Google Scholar
page 579 note 2 Ibid. p. 1039.
page 580 note 3 Ibid. p. 1041.
page 580 note 1 On the case of Zambia, for example, see Parpart, Jane L. and Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Cycles, Contradictions and Coalitions: class fractions in Zambia, 1964–1984’, in L, Irving L. (ed.), Studies in Power and Class in Africa, forthcoming.Google Scholar
page 580 note 2 See Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Beyond Underdevelopment: the anarchic state in Africa’, African Studies Association, Washington, D.C., November 1982.Google Scholar
page 580 note 3 See Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 45–80.
page 580 note 4 M'buyinga, , op. cit. p. 125.Google Scholar
page 581 note 1 See Huges, Barry B. and Strauch, Patricia A., ‘The Future of Development in Nigeria and the Sahel: projections from the World Intergrated Model (WIM)’, in Shaw, (ed.), Alternative Futures for Africa, pp. 179–99;Google Scholar and Florizelle B. Liser, ‘A Basic Needs Strategy and the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI): Africa's development prospects’, in Ibid. pp. 201–36.
page 581 note 2 See Ake, Claude, A Political Economy of Africa (London, 1981), pp. 176–89.Google Scholar
page 581 note 3 See Shaw, Timothy M. and Munton, Don, ‘Africa's Futures: a comparison of forecasts’, in Shaw, (ed.), Alternative Futures for Africa, pp. 37–92,Google Scholar and Timothy M. Shaw and Paul Goulding, ‘Alternative Scenarios for Africa’, in Ibid. pp. 93–130.
page 582 note 2 See Shaw, Timothy M., Towards an International Political Economy for the 1980s: from dependence to (inter)dependence (Halifax, 1980).Google Scholar
page 583 note 1 On the general question of such ‘complexes’ in the Third World, including the cases of Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa, see A, Edward A. and E, Robert E. (ed.), Security Policies of Developing Countries (Lexington, 1982), pp. 179–202 and 285–327.Google Scholar
page 584 note 1 O.A.U. Council of Ministers, ‘On the Proposal for the Establishment of an OAU Political Security Council (CM/Res. 789 [XXXV)]’, Freetown, June 1980, in Colin, Legum (ed.), Africa Contemporary Record, Vol. 13, 1980–1981 (New York and London, 1981), p. c11.Google Scholar
page 584 note 2 On such issues of the ‘new security’ in post-neo-colonial Africa, see Shaw, Timothy M., ‘Unconventional Conflicts in Africa: nuclear, class and guerrilla struggles, past, present and prospective’, in Jerusalem Journal in International Relations, forthcoming.Google Scholar
page 586 note 1 Lagos Plan of Action, p. 5.
page 586 note 2 Ibid. p. 7.
page 586 note 3 See Ake, Claude, Revolutionary Pressures in Africa (London, 1978).Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by